The latest round of cuts comes on top of 11,000 job cuts which were announced in October 2007.

Oswald Gruebel, UBS chief executive, said the bank will take time to recover from the economic crisis.

"You should not assume that this will bring about a marked improvement in our results as early as the next few quarters. Our outlook remains cautious and we face many uncertainties," he told the bank's annual general meeting.

UBS has suffered billions of dollars of losses over the past two years and received a bailout from the Swiss government.

World stocks fell on Wednesday as news of the job cuts raised concern among investors.

The bank's shares also fell 8.7 per cent at opening, but gained ground at 0800 GMT, trading down 2.6 per cent.